NEW YORK – JALEN BRUSON and Josh Hart were standing at the scorer table, looking at the Pistons de Détroit prolonging their advance in the last minutes of match 5 and waiting to register, waiting for the chance to try the trend.
And they were just waiting for.
Neither Brunson nor Hart were on the ground when Cade Cunningham dribblored through the chronology, took a high screen from the Jalen Duren Center and led to his left. The leader of the stars of the pistons kept Miles McBride on his hip, attacked the cities of Karl-Anthony in the painting and launched in a runner on the great man of the Knicks, giving Detroit a advance of six points on the Knicks with 1:57 remaining in the fourth trimester.
Advertisement
Brunson and Hart had checked the match one minute earlier, with New York in two. Brunson seemed to reintegrate the ankle to the bald right which disturbs him throughout this series of best seven while keeping Cunningham with a little less than four minutes to do. A few goods later, Hart took a bad fall after slipping to challenge a Cunningham campaign, colliding with the piston star in the air and landing hard on his left arm and his lower back.
After Dern cleaned the failure of Cunningham with a recoil dunk to do it 97-95, the Knicks head coach, Tom Thibodeau, called time, checking Brunson and Hart out of the game. Hart was walking carefully in front of the Knicks bench and returned to the locker room. Brunson stayed at the end of the bench during the dead time, crouched and at some point a chair cushion in an obvious frustration.
Thibodeau put McBride and the veteran record Cameron Payne in the game alongside Towns, Mikal Bridges and Og Anunoby. The Knicks missed four consecutive shots while the chronometer was running, with their two best infringement initiators – and with Brunson, the newly struck clutch player of the year – standing at the scorer table, waiting for the recording.
Advertisement
Some coaches could have asked their players to make a fault to force a stop at stake, creating an opportunity for substitution. New York had already been whistled for five faults in the fourth quarter, however, which means that any personal fault committed would send Detroit to the line of free throws – and although the pistons had their fair share of problems, going 26 out of 36 of the band for the game and the tension for four quarters were probably extended in the mind of Thibodeau after looking at his offense and pressure for four right districts.
Asked after the match on the choice not to grow, Thibodeau said: “Just the coach's decision.”
The Knicks had a waiting period and could have called him once they won possession to stop the game and give Brunson and Hart a chance to come back. But Thibodeau chose not to use it.
Advertisement
“Just where we were with our downtime,” he said. “Decision of the coach.”
A certain number of factors fall into this decision -making process, said Thibodeau.
The Knicks lacked Jalen Brunson in a crucial section of match 5 in New York. (AP photo / Adam Hunger)
(Associated Press)
“You look at the time, the score, the penalty, the downtime-all of the above,” he said. “What's going on in the game? Do you feel like the next possession, you will know, there will be a lot of things that have entered it.”
That calculationus led thibodeau to stand pat: to let the players he had the floor try to defend the cunningham-duren pick-And-roll that had been carving up the knicks for large chunks of the second half and try to figure out Howrate good Hold New York to League-Worst Rates of Offensive Effectivecy Three times in the last four games.
Advertisement
“Well, yes, we had guys who came out,” said Thibodeau. “It is, you know, the challenge. We did not know when they returned, if they returned. So, that is one of them. You have different combinations there.”
Since the moment when Brunson and Hart have passed when Thibodeau called this last expiration time after A Lay-Up Ausar Thompson with 27.4 seconds remainingThe combination of New York had outclassed 6-2, allowing Detroit to take a six-point lead. The Knicks would make the pistons sweat, thanks to the 3 points per Bridges And Anunobia … But this margin resisted, allowing Cunningham and Co. to leave with a victory of the series and to force a match 6 in Detroit on Thursday.
“It's difficult,” said Brunson to sit at the scorer table and not be able to take over the match. “But I have the greatest faith, whatever the result, in my teammates. Whoever is there – confidence, faith, belief, all that. I will always have that for my teammates.”
Advertisement
The concern, after seeing Brunson and Hart must get out of the ground during the most critical section of the game, is the form in which they are when the series resumes Little Caesars Arena. Brunson, as is the case, insisted that his ankle is fine. When they asked him what wrist hurts after the fall, Hart said: “My body bothers me.”
With a single day between the matches at this stage of the opening round of the NBA qualifiers in 2025, Brunson, Hart, Thibodeau and the rest of the Knicks will have to go as well as possible by Tipoff on Thursday to try to put the bitter taste of game 5 behind them and put themselves in position to close the pistons on their court at home.
“The challenge is to reset,” said Thibodeau. “Each match is different. Take a look at the film, see what we can do better and be ready to go for the next game.”
